A’s Eye of the Tiger Doesn’t Blink, 6-2 : Game 5: A determined Stewart pitches a complete game in Oakland’s victory. The series returns to Toronto with Blue Jays leading, three games to two.

Dave Stewart long ago established his credentials as a competitor, and after his performance Monday during Oakland’s 6-2 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays, he can boast of being clairvoyant.

Aware his teammates were disheartened Sunday after a 7-6 loss pushed them to the brink of elimination, Stewart took it upon himself to lighten the mood with a postgame speech.

“I said, ‘Tomorrow, the sun will shine,’ ” he recounted, “ ‘and even if it doesn’t shine, I’m going to shine.’ ”

The sun was brilliant Monday at the Oakland Coliseum, and so was Stewart, as the A’s narrowed Toronto’s American League Championship Series lead to 3-2, with Game 6 Wednesday afternoon in Toronto. Only two other American League teams have wasted 3-1 playoff leads--the 1985 Blue Jays and the 1986 Angels--and Toronto had hoped David Cone would make that collapse against the Kansas City Royals a distant and faded memory.

But Cone, pitching on three days’ rest for the first time since Aug. 25, 1991, gave up six hits and six runs (three earned) in four innings. Although Cone and Jack Morris have failed to win their second series start while pitching on three days’ rest, Cone said he hadn’t been adversely affected.

“I would never use that as an excuse,” Cone said. “I felt fine. I had the stuff to get the job done. I just didn’t execute. . . . It’s certainly disappointing. It really is. I guess I could say I made a few mistakes, but I thought I could have done a better job and kept the game closer.”

One of those mistakes was a line-drive, two-run homer run by Ruben Sierra on a fastball in the first inning. Another was Cone’s errant pickoff throw to first base after a leadoff walk by Rickey Henderson in the third inning, which put Henderson on third. He was driven in by the second of Jerry Browne’s four singles.

Dave Winfield’s leadoff homer in the fourth inning cut Oakland’s lead to 3-1, but the A’s were aided by a Toronto team that has made eight errors in the last three games.

Kelly Gruber’s misplay of Lance Blankenship’s bouncer to third base and right fielder Joe Carter’s wild throw on a single by Browne led to two unearned runs in the fifth, giving the A’s a 6-1 lead.

Is playoff history repeating?

“That’s just an ignorant question. It’s not relevant to this year,” said reliever Tom Henke, one of four players remaining from the 1985 Blue Jays. Rance Mulliniks, Dave Stieb and Jimmy Key are the others.

“We’ve got all new guys here--or almost all new--and we can’t worry about the past,” said Henke, who has saved each of Toronto’s victories in this series.

“I think we’ve got quality enough people here to win. I’m not worried about stuff like that. We’ve got one game at home, possibly two games left to play, and that stuff about the past has nothing to do with the guys we have here.

“It would have been nice to do it today, but we accomplished what we wanted to do in winning two out of three. Now we get to go home and win it in front of our fans.”

Stewart, who will be eligible for free agency after the season, didn’t let himself consider that he might be pitching in front of his hometown fans for the last time.

“Coming to the park, I was just thinking, ‘I don’t want to go home tomorrow. I don’t won’t this to be the last game, period,’ ” he said. “We’ve dedicated ourselves to going a little further than people think we can.”

Stewart persevered through a precarious seventh inning, escaping with minimal damage when he got Roberto Alomar--Toronto’s top hitter in the series with a .381 average--to line to second base for an inning-ending double play after a single by Devon White had scored Gruber with the Blue Jays’ second run.

Said catcher Terry Steinbach: “He knew our backs were against the wall, and he knew he had to pitch a good game and he did, the first inning through the ninth. He moved the ball around well and mixed his pitches well.

“He’s proven himself time after time. Go back and check his track record and you’ll see when there’s a game he needs to win, he wins it.”

Added Oakland Manager Tony La Russa, who said he was reluctant to use Dennis Eckersley for a third consecutive day and might have summoned Jeff Russell or Rick Honeycutt to close a tight game:

“Stew had the eye of the tiger out there today, and when he has that look, there are no limitations. Sometimes, there is no justice in baseball, like in (Sunday’s) game. Today, there was justice in Stew’s complete game.”

Said Stewart: “I’ve always tried to do whatever was needed to get the job done. Today, we had to win a ballgame, obviously, and I just tried to go out and win it. This was a very big moment for me.”

Said Winfield: “This is what we were looking for, two out of three here. . . . No one’s scared. It’s been a great series, and it will continue to be.”